(File photo/northeastNOW)

By Cam Lee

Horizon job action

Teachers off the job Friday at Horizon School Division

Mar 21, 2024 | 4:59 PM

Horizon School Division is one of two across the province to have teachers go on strike on Friday.

Members of the Horizon and Lloydminster Teachers’ Associations are off the job on Friday as part of the ongoing dispute between the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation (STF) and the provincial government over whether to include class size and complexity in the collective bargaining agreement.

Horizon Director of Education Kevin Garinger told northeastNOW the division has seen significant sanctions since job action began.

“I find it very odd that Horizon is the number one sanctioned school division in the province,” Garinger said. He added he would have to ask the STF why that is the case.

Having said that, Garinger said he realizes staff need support.

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“Focus on making sure that we’re doing what we need to for our staff, which is really important to us.”

Garinger said all leaves have been approved during the sanction period by the Division office and claims they’re doing what they can to protect the relationships with the people they employ.

The sanctions are impacting the division, staff, families, and students, according to Garinger, but he respects the right of the STF to issue sanctions.

“There’s also a right that exists for school boards and certainly for Directors of Education to ensure that programming continues in the way that it needs to, and that’s what I’ve been trying and do for the sake of our kids,” Garinger explained.

Garinger said he believes the easiest sanction on kids and families is noon-hour supervision withdrawal, as the students are continuing to learn. Horizon has provided $20 for people who help with noon-hour supervision during sanctions.

“When you pull…extra-curricular activity away from students, that has an impact on many of our youth,” Garinger said. He added when there are full-day strikes, students lose a full day of learning, and students and staff lose extra-curricular activities.

There were some questions about ski trips and whether they qualify as a curricular or extra-curricular activity in light of the STF sanctions. Garinger said they’ve shared with principals that any educational trips have to be curricular in nature.

“When ski trip (requests) come in, they have to demonstrate that they are curricular in nature, and when they do then they can be approved and they are curricular and not extra-curricular,” explained Garinger.

He said a question that continues to be debated is what happens when teachers have to spend time beyond the school day.

“When it comes to ski trips that may occur during the course of a day, during an extra-curricular sanction, (the division) would say that we believe that is curricular, therefore it would align with still being curricular-focused and not extra-curricular.”

Garinger said despite that, he is not going to put teachers in a position where they are not comfortable in taking that on, and the division has not had any ski trips move forward during the sanction period.

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Cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @northeastNOW_SK